The Protector (9 page)

A

I stood there in total shock as I watched Jack walk out of the bathroom. Ok, so now we were even, he had seen me half naked and now I had seen him half naked and we barely knew each other. ‘Gee all that was left was to sleep together,’ I thought to myself.  I stood there staring at him as he had the night before. I couldn’t tear my eyes off of his chest. When I was leaning against him at the airport I had noticed his muscular build, now I saw what I had been leaning against and I had no complaints.  He had another tattoo, this time on his chest above his heart.  It was an easy read  - if I understood Latin – Pater Peccavi. I memorized the words so I could kill the lingering curiosity I knew I would have. 

I managed to spit out a few words and grab my computer.  “Alison!” I heard him say. I stopped with my hand on the door. “I’m sorry. I keep a few things here in this bathroom, I should have warned you. I, I.”   I didn’t dare turn to look at him. With my luck he would have lost the towel.

“No I am sorry, I’ll see you downstairs.” I quickly opened the door and shut it behind me. There was no way this could have gotten any more embarrassing, but as I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, I could feel my heart racing and I was suddenly dizzy.  I took another deep breath to try and calm my nerves and took a few steps toward the stairs. The dizziness didn’t go away.  I stopped to gather my senses before I sent my body flying down the stairs.  

I stood there for a moment and waited.  I really needed to get down the stairs before Jack came out of the room. But I couldn’t make my body move.  A million thoughts raced through my head as the reality of it all came crashing down.  I was in DC not of my own free will but because I had to be.  I had information that was valuable to another government and someone was chasing me. For a strange moment I felt like a character out of a Tom Clancy novel and Jack was my own personal Jack Ryan.

The dizziness finally subsided and I slowly walked down the stairs. I could hear more voices besides Seth’s and Mrs. Walkers in the kitchen. I recognized one of them as the man who had met us at the airport. I had decided earlier that I was going to hand off the processor to
whoever
came with me back to Albuquerque and get on with my life. I would count this as one of those only happens to one in a million people types of things.

I had almost reached the last step when the dizziness and tightening in my chest returned with a vengeance. My body began to sway and the steps began to move as if I was drunk. I didn’t hear Jack as he came down the stairs behind me.  As I tried desperately to take the last few steps, I felt his strong arms circle my waist.  He pulled me tight against his chest and held me firm as I took the last step down.

“You alright?”

I was able to catch my breath as he eased his grip leaving only one of his arms around my waist and the other now held my elbow.  “I’m ok.” I managed to spit out.  I didn’t try to walk forward and I didn’t try to sit down on the steps that were behind us. Instead I stood there cradled in his arm, catching my breath.  “Just dizzy.”

“I have that
effect
on women.” Jack managed to say with half a smile.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t the first woman to fall victim to his good looks and sadly enough I figured I wouldn’t be the last.  I managed to pull myself upright. He let the arm around my waist go, but he still held on to my elbow. 

“I’m ok. I think too much excitement and not enough air in the lungs.”  I managed to take another deep breath which stopped some of the burning. Although I knew I wasn’t having another asthma attack, I desperately wanted my inhaler which was still up in the room I had stayed in.  Another thought hit me as I realized my inhaler was almost if not already empty.  I felt my shoulders fall forward and Jack was quick to throw his arm around me once again for support. 

“Conway is supposed to bring you a new inhaler this morning. I noticed yours was almost empty.”  It was as if he could read my mind.  And he suddenly had this
all-encompassing
protective nature about him. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Seth came around the corner and practically ran into us.  “I was just coming up to get you.”  He saw the look on my face and looked back at Jack.  Again their communication was unspoken and within seconds I could feel Jack’s arms leading me into the kitchen.  At the table in the brightly lit kitchen sat Conway shuffling through papers.  Mrs. Walker was finishing up breakfast and smiled brightly at me.  I had to remember to thank her for everything. Despite what was happening she managed to make me feel at home. I could see why Jack looked at her in pure admiration. 

Jack didn’t say a word but instead guided me to a seat at the table and immediately took the seat next to me. He didn’t take his eyes off Conway’s, “Let’s get this over with. We have a plane to catch.” 

A sense of relief washed over me as he said probably the most comforting words I had heard in the last few days. This had to mean I was going to get to go home.  But a fresh wave of panic and questions came over me as I realized that would be the end of the road with Jack. Would I see him ever again?  Mrs. Walker put a cup of coffee down in front of me and a piece of toast and brought me back to reality.

“I want you to eat something Alison.” I watched as she put a bowl of oatmeal down in front of Jack. “Thank you,” we both managed to spit out in unison.  This didn’t go unnoticed by Jack’s coworkers.  Seth who had taken the seat next to Jack looked at me with a smug grin on his face.

I took a sip of my coffee and looked down at the toast that had been set in front of me. Eating was the last thing I had on my mind and the thought of food made me nauseous.  I wasn’t sure if it was the left over effects of the vodka  or the nerves that had settled in the pit of my stomach.

It was Conway who spoke first. “Alison, I need you to go through everything that happened before you left Albuquerque and when you got to Tel Aviv.  Jack has filled me in about what happened when you were supposed to meet with Professor Hassan.”

I looked at Jack confused. “You were there!”  It was more of a statement than a question.  I had thought I was completely insane thinking he was there. Why didn’t he stop the handoff when he knew it wasn’t Professor Hassan? Why did he even let the handoff take place? The questions raced through my mind as I realized that he could have stopped the whole thing. Anger began to well up inside of me.  I watched Jack intently wanting an answer but I realized rather quickly I wasn’t going to get one.

He shoveled a bite of oatmeal into his mouth to keep from having to say anything.  I was pretty sure he could read the anger on my face.   

“How long have you been watching me?” I suddenly wanted to know details of his time in Tel Aviv. I laughed at my own naivety. Of course he had been watching me. I had seen him. I had run into him at the hotel yesterday and saw him at the plaza. And Seth, he was on the plane when I left Dulles and I had seen him everywhere in Tel Aviv.  I figured after talking to Jack, he had kept an eye on me in Tel Aviv, but I hadn’t realized he had actually watched the hand off. I realized quickly that was pure stupidity on my part considering he had mentioned he always accompanied Tom from a distance on these types of trips.

“Since you left Dulles,” Seth answered for Jack who was now sipping his coffee. I could feel the anger pulse through my veins as I began to grasp the magnitude of the situation.

“You had your own special security detail young lady,” Conway added as if it was supposed to make me feel better. Instead it angered me all the more. I had gathered that this man, who towered over my small frame, was the head of the operation.  But there was something about him I didn’t trust.

“Then if you were all there, why didn’t you stop the guy I gave the processor to? You knew it wasn’t Hassan. Jack you admitted that. Why did you let me hand it off to the wrong person?”  The anger grew more intense with each realization that this could have all been prevented.

Finally Jack spoke, “Open market location could have caused more problems. Not to mention, I wasn’t the only one there who didn’t stop the handoff, the Israeli government had sent someone as well, your friend Joed. And I am pretty sure we weren’t the only ones.”

“So you didn’t stop to think something was wrong when Tom sent his assistant to do the handoff?  Did you not see something unusual about that?” My tone was full of sarcasm and my voice was getting louder.  “Gee if this is how our government runs its intelligence operations, we’re screwed aren’t we?”  Anger completely consumed me and the anger always unleashed the bitch.

“Tom had talked about grooming you to take his position. We had been working on your back ground check for
a while
now.  He just wasn’t sure how to approach you about helping us out,” Conway shifted his chair to face me now. “Tom gave me a heads up you would be coming in his place.”

Both Seth and Jack looked at each other in surprise at Conway’s words. Obviously this was something they were not aware of.

Suddenly I felt like the parent quizzing the child. “Then how was it supposed to happen? Was I supposed to just handoff the processor and go on my merry way? It would have been nice to have just a hint of what was going on? If you knew Tom had sent me, then why not give me a heads up” My words were directed at Conway now. “You know maybe a picture of Hassan? You can’t tell me you don’t have pictures?” I stopped and looked around at the men who surrounded me. They all sat there, mouths closed unsure on how to deal with the crazy woman who had erupted into a wise ass bitch.   Every man who sat at the table shifted uncomfortably.  Jack had finished his oatmeal and was staring at me and I met his stare and pointed, “And you?  You followed Tom on these things all the time.  You knew the protocol; could you not have had the common courtesy to warn me?”

“I couldn’t Alison. That is the agreement. Neither government can interfere with the handoff, only observe.  It is to be strictly an academic swapping of material. And I didn’t know you had switched out the processor.”

“Academic swap my ass. This was a weapons swap – illegal via international treaty. There are no rules!” I paused for a moment and sucked in a deep breath, “Great, you know you guys run a really top notch operation.” I instinctively took my clip out and ran my fingers through my hair. It was still damp and cold from this morning. “Has anyone bothered to talk to Hassan and find out where the hell he was for this handoff?”  I knew the answer to the question before I even finished it.  But Seth confirmed it for me.

“They found him dead yesterday. We think he died before you even arrived in Tel Aviv. I’m sorry.” Seth looked at Jack. “Look Alison, if we had known Hassan was dead, we would have interfered. But we had no idea until it was too late. And the Israeli’s weren’t very forthcoming with information either.”

“So, they killed Hassan. Tell me, what stopped them from just killing me and taking the processor. Why let me do the handoff?” 

Jack shook his head. “Us. Seth and I never let you out of our sight. Not to mention if they killed Hassan they knew the Israeli’s would start the blame game and well, we would end up exactly where we are now.”

My head began to spin and my chest tightened.  ‘Great’ I thought to myself, ‘just what I didn’t need to have, another asthma attack.’ I suddenly felt ridiculous and it was at this point I wondered how I ever played college softball. Then I remembered that theoretically my life wasn’t in danger when I was on the softball field. 

Jack moved closer as I shoved my body back from the table and stood up.  I tilted to one side and once again I felt his arm grab my elbow to steady me. With all the air I could muster in my lungs, I turned and pushed his arm away from me. “Back off!”

Jack did and threw his hands up in the air. “Alison, please calm down.” His voice was calm, as I filled with pure panic. I put my hands up against the table and tried desperately to take a deep breath. But it wasn’t going to happen. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jack take something from Conway.  Conspiracy images filled my brain as I pictured him giving me a shot to make me pass out. But it was only my inhaler he held.  He undid the cap and pumped the inhaler and tried to hand it to me. I wanted nothing from him, my inhaler or his help. Suddenly my pride consumed me.  I pushed his arm away again and the inhaler went flying across the room. It was getting harder to breathe but I didn’t care. I tried desperately to walk backwards out of the room. I wanted away from everyone and everything, but I had no clue where I was going to go.   I only managed to spit the word intelligence out before the room spun out of control.

Jack was the first to my side, Mrs. Walker, second, with the inhaler in hand.  “She has a temper doesn’t she,” I heard Seth say somewhere in my general vicinity.

“Do you want me to call the doc,” Conway asked.

“No, I told you this wasn’t a good idea.” Jack shoved the inhaler in my mouth and pumped it. I was forced to take in the mist with my next breath. I began to cough.

Although I could have opened my eyes, I kept them closed. I wasn’t ready for any more questions and I wasn’t ready to see the disappointment in Jack’s eyes. I felt his hand on my chest, this time lower than where he had placed it before.